The excitement seems to be slowly dying from "Lost" as it becomes more science-fiction and less character-driven.

The season premiere of the ABC series earned a 6.8/10 in its first hour and fell nearly 3 percent to 6.4/10 in its second hour struggling to keep pace with crime dramas on CBS as well as the premiere of a new show on Fox, according to Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research.

The 6.6/10 average is 30.5 percent lower than the 9.5/14 last season's premiere earned, and was off more than 14 percent from last season's average of 7.7/12. In fact, it was that average "Lie To Me" earned for Fox in its premiere, beating "Lost" in the key demographic of adults 18 to 49, but only slightly.

In the 10 p.m. hour, "Lost" took second with its 6.4/10, according to Zap2it, but was well behind the 7.7/12 "CSI: New York" earned. It did finish ahead of "Law & Order" on NBC, which managed a 5.8/9, which is about average for that show this season.

"Knight Rider" also aired Wednesday, but couldn't even beat the "Lost" clip show that preceded the season premiere. That show earned an estimated 3.6/6, up slightly from last week, but still tracking lower than its first handful of episodes.

"Knight Rider" was beat by "American Idol" on Fox, "Lost: Destiny Calls" on ABC and a comedy block of "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "Gary Unmarried" on CBS.

For the night, ABC finished in third with a 6.2/10, a good distance behind second-place CBS, which picked up a 7.0/11. Fox pounded the night with an 11.0/17, thanks to "American Idol." NBC managed a 4.3/7.

Fast Nationals usually provide a snapshot of what Americans are watching by pulling numbers from the top urban markets that includes both live viewing and same-day timeshifted viewing. A rating point generally represents more than 1.1 million households while the share indicates the percentage of televisions turned on that was tuned to the specific program. These numbers typically shift when final ratings are issued.

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